The Great Hizzy! Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 This speaks to "good governance" versus "bad governance" in general but it uses the Katrina crisis as an example. The numbers are staggering, the conclusions maybe a bit controversial, but I agree with the overall point. Warning: it' a long read (but a very compelling one).Since multiple surveys of Katrina evacuees in Houston indicate that between half and two-thirds plan to stay, the challenge for post-Katrina Houston is to ensure that the worst elements of New Orleans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpringTX Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 Great data in that article. I think that the number of Katrina refugees in Houston (150,000) will prove to be significantly small compared to the overall Houston population (4 million), combined with Houston's growing economy and good government, such that they will be successfully assimilated for the most part...even if localized pockets will suffer terrible problems in the short run. It's never nice to watch a city's "underclass" increase by a significant percentage overnight, but I'd rather have these folks in Houston, where they will eventually find jobs and become better educated, than in corrupt New Orleans where they were just sinking deeper, living off the government, and killing each other. On the flip side, I think this is the one bright spot for New Orleans in all this Katrina sorrow. New Orleans now has the chance to start over and not repeat the mistakes that caused such a large, poor, violent underclass in their city for so long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 New Orleans now has the chance to start over and not repeat the mistakes that caused such a large, poor, violent underclass in their city for so long.You are totally missing the point. The truly corrupt are still in New Orleans.Nothing will change that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpringTX Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 You are totally missing the point. The truly corrupt are still in New Orleans.Nothing will change that.I kind of suspected that (that the post-Katrina world of New Orleans will be just as corrupt as pre-Katrina). Which is why I said they merely have an opportunity to change. I was under the impression that things were shaking up there politically, but I guess it's not enough.So I guess the only real upside for N.O. is that they don't have quite the burden on their backs with such a large underclass, which maybe will help them rebuild more quickly.Basically, it's hard to talk about any upside for N.O. Half the population of that city is gone and ain't comin' back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrfootball Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 Half the population of that city is gone and ain't comin' back The worst half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 The worst half. Dude, did your parents teach you to be a hater like that, or did you learn it in Cy-Fair? You and Spring have been on a thinly disguised tear for a week now. And, it is getting old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Great Hizzy! Posted April 26, 2006 Author Share Posted April 26, 2006 Worst "half"?Being poor doesn't automatically make you a criminal, a degenerate and a blight on society. Keep perspective. There may be a few hundred violent New Orleanians here in Houston. Considering that it is estimated that about 150,000 permant New Orleanians are now calling Houston home, it would be well beyond unfair to assume that the actions of a tiny few pretty much reveal the character of a much larger group of individuals.Furthermore, there are well-paid executives (black and white) who now call Houston home, too. More than you might realize. "Only" 35,000 evacuees were cared for at Reliant Park and the GRB. That means, the majority of the 150,000 displaced persons still estimated in Houston are individuals who had the werewithall to "get out of town" on their own and find/pay for lodging in hotels or churches or wherever. The majority are people who probably were hard workers, earning their own coin, but had their lives completely uprooted when middle-class homes ab nd jobs were destroyed, and they are finally out of the money to continue paying for hotels, food, etc without any steady income.A lot of this worst "half" has the same characteristics as the other "better" half that might be back in New Orleans---that is, other than having, you know, their home still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brijonmang Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 a great book I just read on the whole lower-class, minimum wage topic is called Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. It talks of how hard working most minimum wage people are. I also know from experience that poor, minimum waged people are some of the most diligent workers out there. and no im not talking about illegal immigrants... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KimberlySayWhat Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 My dad's friend was robbed and threatened by a N.O. evacuee the other day. He put a gun to his back, threatened to kill him and took $60. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Timmy Chan's Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 My dad's friend was robbed and threatened by a N.O. evacuee the other day. He put a gun to his back, threatened to kill him and took $60.I get robbed by Houston oil executives every time I put gas in my tank...and I guarantee they've taken a lot more than $60. I guess it's OK since they didn't have a gun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrfootball Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 Yes, our New Orleans friends have been lovely guests. The skyrocketing murder rate and violent crime statistics are merely a figment of your imagination. "Don't be a hater..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VicMan Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 Yes, our New Orleans friends have been lovely guests. The skyrocketing murder rate and violent crime statistics are merely a figment of your imagination. "Don't be a hater..." That doesn't mean that most of the evacuees are criminals. Most of them are law-abiding citizens. Only a few evacuees are criminals, and they are finding out that the Texas legal system doesn't play around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrfootball Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 That doesn't mean that most of the evacuees are criminals. Most of them are law-abiding citizens. Only a few evacuees are criminals, and they are finding out that the Texas legal system doesn't play around.Unfortunately, not fast enough. The 10:00 news, sickening as it was Pre-Katrina, makes me wanna puke now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Timmy Chan's Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 Yes, our New Orleans friends have been lovely guests. The skyrocketing murder rate and violent crime statistics are merely a figment of your imagination. "Don't be a hater..." All my New Orleans friends were lovely guests. They were all gainfully employed for the months that they stayed here, but now they've gone home to rebuild their hometown. I know that there has been an increase in crime in certain parts of town...it's no figment of our imagination, but people talk like Houston changed overnight from a sleepy little town to a Wild West shootout. There were problems before the NOLA folks arrived, and there are still problems today. Yes, crime has increased, but VicMan hit the nail on the head...most of these people are good, hard-working citizens, not criminals. Too many of us are painting all NOLA evacuees with a broad brush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpringTX Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Just to clarify where I'm coming from, before anyone labels me specifically as a Katrina-refugee-hater or as someone painting Katrina refugees with a broad brush, let me say that I had a Katrina refugee stay in my house with me for almost 2 months.As someone else said, all kinds of people fled New Orleans, not just the worst elements of that city. Many of the more educated ones headed straight for places like The Woodlands, because they were looking for the better school districts and so on. And many of them have decided to make Houston their permanent home.But, having said all that, unfortunately, it appears that a disproportionate number of the ones that are staying here are ones that were on public assistance in Louisiana. That's not my conclusion; that's the conclusion of Nicole Gelinas of the City Journal in the article quoted above. She says:"After all, the population that arrived in Houston, particularly those who took vouchers, is disproportionately poor. Houston Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 And to think people bashed Babs for telling the truth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston1stWordOnTheMoon Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 That one was a no brainer........the people in the Superdome and the Convention Center were either very poor with no means of getting out or they were foreign tourist that got stuck when some of the airlines pulled out before the storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 It's not like Houston was some crime-free Utopia before Katrina. Let's not pretend that the refugees are the root of all the city's evils. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmainguy Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 And to think people bashed Babs for telling the truth. Yeah...the problem with "Babs" is she raised up some pretty disfunctional kids: Jeb with his troubled and often jailed children; Neil with his mistress and their illegitimate child; DWIer George with his boozing and his in out of jail boozing twins...at least they didn't turn out like that Clinton kid...did you know she actually...uh...went to Stanford...has never been arrested....has parents who have apparently done something right and can genuinly stand up and brag about her. Don't hand us this crap about the Bushs. It has gotton so tiered that the lies about these people have come to come to be seen as the truth. They can't hold a candle to the people like us who were on the ground helping our NO neighbors-so let's not muck it up with the Barbara Bushs of the world...please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Back on topic, sending NO refugees back isn't an option, whether they are no good or not. We just have to do our best to acclimate. I can't imagine that it will lead to a permnanent increase in the crime rate. I think there's a bit of sensationalism in these "Houston is tired of refugees" stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 We just have to do our best to acclimate."We"? How about "They"?And I think you've confused your acclimate with your assimilate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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